No diablo in here.

Well, I'm not sure how housing will be implemented, and I doubt it will be this way, but here's something I'd like to see:

A Seed of Kiakoda.
Imprint a short and long room description upon it, and choose a type of living tree, then plant it in an open forest location. It grows into an enormous tree that shows on the list of objects, ie, 'A majestic Heartwood Tree stands here, its healthy golden leaves reflecting the colours of sunshine.' Then you UNLOCK HEARTWOOOD/OPEN HEARTWOOD/ENTER HEARTWOOD and inside is the room that you prepared earlier. Extra rooms/upgrades could be purchased as in other IRE games, but I'd much rather have this sort of environment integrated home than the typical street down which the entire city has its houses of all different kinds.

Other livable areas/environments would have other items that create different house objects, of course.

Ebonglom Lobster Bib: a mystical artifact that, when tucked around the chin of the Ebonglom Wyrm, inspires him to chew his food so he won't vomit it all up in five minutes. I feel awful for him every time someone wanders in with 20-odd things to feed him...

One of the problem with stat enhancements, combat protections (like buckawn boots competely 100% against web or any other form of entanglement) and weapon enhancements, is that people can simply stack them up. And there are plenty that do end stacking those up, so even if things in a realm in general are sorted out, you would keep ending with near unkillable people that alone could probably be able to take on entire cities. Regeneration, stat enhancement, buckawn boots, forcefields, extra sipping, anti-stopping. You might as well give them something like this...:

Mantle of the Demigod: A mantle that when worn allows you to transcend all mortal limitations. Now your stats are increased to be compared to those of the Souless. You can easily tear through the fabrics of reality and travel to any existing plane with the blink of the eye. The rules of reality don't apply to you, and no obstacle is big enough to have the slightest impact on you. You can now turn your entire surroundings against your enemy, afflicting them to the death. Now go ahead show entire cities exactly what you are made up of! (this was just an exageration , but I think it gives an idea of what may happen when you have people constantly stacking up on every stat enhancement, plus artifacts that lower or remove a weakness to a skill or status)

Here are some ideas:
-Eye of the Beholder: A "sigil" that is attached to the forehead, allowing people to see who is trying to Teleport to their location, shows you who is trying to summon you while preventening Summons from your Enemies. Also allows you the ability to "sense" someone's location.

-Herald of the Destroyer: A helmet that when worn allows you to literally explode, causing critical damage on those surrounding you while setting them on fire. This coming at the cost of half your health, and 5 power.

-Ocarina of Serenity: An ocarina that the user must wield, and when played can pacify their enemies for a period of time, but when unwielded can't be used.

-Visage of Lunacy: A mask, that when activated keeps you on afflicting others with fear/shyness/agoraphobia. Cost is 5 power and a gradual mana loss.

About artifacts "thieves" (though there aren't much around, and completely no snake guilds) could take on the advantage, those are artifacts that can always help anyone. I mean, for example the Cloak of the Phantasm idea, only protects you from WHO, you can QW sense (except on the nighttime when they can phase). So it is still controllable and allows people to discern where someone can be with skills like scry). By the way, anyone is a possible costumer on the credit market. So you will always have some people thay may at least purchase one artifact they consider they need, and those people who constantly purchase credits that do like having a good repertory of artifacts on their hands. Lusternia would be doing great if they offered new artifacts, as opposed to alterations of already existing artifacts... call them innovations?

An artifact that lets you get unenemied from one non-player run organization per lusternian year, for free. One that prevents you from falling out of trees. One that makes things you beat in a seduction influence battle loyal to you, only one thing can be loyal to you at a time, and when attempting to use this it makes winning a seduction battle harder. Something like Achaea's tophat that only costs 25 credits, so there's something I can afford

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! I loved that so much, and not only because it was so affordable... Lusternia definitely needs something small and bordering on useless, but that is still a veritable cult item.

Last Stand: A locket, that when activated gives a person the Vitality defence with the difference, that it heals even more. Same restrictions as wit Vitality apply, a person needs to have full mana and full health to activate. Im may also give a +2 strength boost for 15 seconds.

Kite: A kite that can be used as a personal messanger devise. You Put item into kite, then Fly Kite to target. Then you can Drop (item), and then Retrieve Kite

whats the top hat do?

Put stuff in and randomly draw stuff out.

I'm not overly fond of artifacts that give abilities that classes already have. A certain class has it and another doesn't for certain reasons. However, abilities that no class has, is fine.

I agree that stat-altering artifacts aren't the best idea. The races and classes were balanced like they are for good reasons (I hope), and adding permanent bonuses onto that would just mess that up.

I also agree that skills that are limited to one archetype should not be made into an artifact and given to everyone else. If you really, really want to forage, then join a Serenwilde guild, learn the Squirrel totem, and scurry about the woods looking for food as much as you want. I don't want to see an Ur'Guard rubbing a +3 Torc of Foraging and spontaneously scampering about the room. Nuh-uh, too weird looking.

I also think that artifacts that can be used as substitutes for tradeskills is rather ridiculous. Artifact rings are unfair to jewelers, magical tunics would hurt tailors, an everlasting font of a cure-all potion would screw alchemists over, and so on and so forth.

However, here's an idea I had:
Web of the Fates
You wield it, and throw it at someone. Not only does it entangle your target quite tightly, making it impossible to do anything but writhe, but it will also slowly drain health away from your enemy. When your opponent does writhe out of it, however, it will be temporarily destroyed, as the myriad network of threads would have been damaged. The Fates, however, would grant you another within a period of time (i.e., when the artifact resets).

Might be a tad overpowered, but hey, it could work with a bit of tweaking.

I'd rather deal with a person with +3 con than someone who's able to entangle me and drain my life.. That'd be fast with healthleech, too, plus this falls under the lines of taking web and putting it in another Archetype, if the persons a Knight anyways.

Don't contradict yourself.

I'm not contradicting myself, Web is already available through enchantments anyways.

I believe a BROOCH OF THE TEMPEST should solve that little problem, one more question though, does IRE take debit cards?

Yes, thankfully. (as long as it's a Visa or MasterCard)

You say you don't want artifacts that replace tradeskills, but having a 'web' artifact kills our biggest selling enchantment... next to mercy, which is web. (At least for me.)

Stat altering artifacts have no caused huged imbalances in the other IRE games, and they are unlikely too here in my opinion.

For instance, an Ur'guard with expert athletics, trans necromancy and (virtuoso?) high magic can give themselves +5 strength at knight already. Strength doesn't appear to have much of a bearing on damage here, so its not that big of an issue.

Stat boosting is a big part of Lusternia. Everything is big and beefy in something, and if not, they have a big advantage to make up for it.

And, in case you haven't figured from the fact they cost alot of credits, Artifacts are supposed to make you really good, thats why they're ARTIFACTS. You're not supposed to be on-par with Artiwhores. Sure, you can beat them, and you should be able to hold your own if you're a good fighter, but they aren't indefeatable.

If an artifact doesn't provide some bonus thats either DARN convenient, or "Wow, thats quite powerful", its not worth paying hundreds of dollars for.

I don't like that statement. It's probably true, but... well, wouldn't it be good if Lusternia could still generate revenue through selling artifacts that people liked and wanted, but that weren't simply the combinations of Veil/Wings/level 3 bow/Portal Wand that have made certain people just... annoying, in places like Achaea?

Lusternia has already distanced itself from the three previous IRE games in many ways. Considering we already have things like master weapons, that are reportedly (bugs and future fixes aside) on par with level 1 artifacts themselves - not to mention they're player designed by Forgers and look cooler, why go down the same path and just sell the same old level 1/2/3 artifact weapons Achaea, Aetolia and Imperian all did?

My ideas for Artifacts pertain to the more commodity aspects of the game. Artifacts to increase mercantile production.

My artifact concepts are not exactly conservative.

A cow bell - with the cow bell like the flowerpot receives a milk commodity every month as long as the cow is found and the bell attached and he is fed. The cow is your pet for a year or so from which you have to go out and find a new dairy cow for milking. You will need a bucket to milk with.

A chicken coop - with the chicken coop you can gather chickens from local villages from which you can gather several eggs from per month depending on how much food they are given.

A farmers almanac (name pending) - with this you have all the materials to plant your own farm in any valley, plains, or farmland terrain. Produce fruit, vegetables, and grain. Different terrains can have different things planted. The crop can be affected by the weather and other such things. May possibly even have to water your crops so they don't die or hire players to assist in the crops growth. The raw commodities can then be sold to a local village so that they produce that specific commodity.

These are just ideas to help with chefs on commodities and how they can produce them more effectively and maintain their expenses.